


insecurity is a bitch

by ratbrain



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I just really like insecure hurt/comfort fics, Insecurity, Jealousy, Light Angst, M/M, which is surprising for Jonny d'ville
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:55:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27619370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratbrain/pseuds/ratbrain
Summary: Basically Tim gets mad at Jonny and yells at him and Jonny tries to hide the fact that he's upset. That's pretty much it.
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville/Gunpowder Tim
Comments: 8
Kudos: 74





	insecurity is a bitch

“You know,” Jonny said, looking down at his bound hands and then over to Tim, who was similarly bound at the wrist and ankles (Angus might’ve been a complete prick after all, but he definitely had some experience with this) “We should really listen to Nastya more”.

“You fucking think!?” Tim spat out, uselessly flailing his wrists, as if that was any help. 

“Alright, just calm down”

“Please shut up” Tim sounded exhausted, and Jonny didn’t know why. It’s not like this was their first experience with being kidnapped, in fact it was far from it. So why was he getting so upset over it now? Jonny wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to be annoying or coddling. So, he did what he does best. 

“Aw, anger looks so cute on you!” 

He was hoping that would at least pull a laugh out of Tim, but it didn’t. Tim simply sighed and said “Remind me when we get out of here to kill you again”

Now Jonny was really confused. Something was definitely bothering Tim. Was it the fact that they had gotten themselves tied up by some dick and the situation could in hindsight have been easily avoided if he hadn’t been so stupid? Maybe. But this sounded...different. Still, as much as he wanted to ask what was wrong he didn’t want to be so pushy. So once again he decided to make a joke of things. 

“Not if I kill you first!” He said gleefully. 

“Does everything have to be a competition with you?” Tim asked, and that one hurt a bit. Normally Tim loved his stupid competitions, and it was the rest of the crew that scolded them for having them. A creeping sort of isolation came over Jonny then, and he wondered if Tim was going to leave him. Definitely not the first time he’d ever entertained the thought, but it seemed that this time was the only one he felt he had any sort of proof for. 

“Only the fun stuff” He said, giving one last shot at enthusiasm. Tim sighed, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes (not that he needed to, but turns out even after a few hundred years the habit doesn’t leave you). The Aurora was silent, as it had been for the last two hours or so. It was pissed at them, and as Jonny thought about it it was probably justified in being so. Still sucked when you were tied up, but you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. Tim sighed again. 

“You done there yet Hamlet?” Jonny inquired, beginning to move around as much as possible in the ropes. 

“I wish he gagged our mouths” Tim said flatly. 

“Kinky! Did not put you down as a sadist, but I must say I am proud”

“We’ve literally had kinky sex” Tim said, exasperated, knowing he really shouldn’t be feeding into Jonny’s stupid antics if he wanted a way out of here anytime soon. He needed to start working on an actual plan, because being tied up for reasons other than sex was pretty irritating and if there was a way out soon, he’d like to find it. 

“Yes I know, I was just trying to be funny” Jonny huffed, and somehow Tim just knew that if his arms weren’t tied up he’d be crossing them like a petulant child. The thought made him smile a bit, but it wasn’t long before he was back to trying to make a plan. He could deal with Jonny being childish later. He was trying to think of ways out when Jonny huffed again, clearly upset that Tim hadn’t paid his dramatics enough attention the first time around. Jonny opened his mouth to speak again but Tim cut him off. 

“Christ, I know Jonny!” He yelled, surprised at the harshness in his own voice but somehow unable to stop. “If you recall it was you being funny that got us into this mess as well as most of the others, so can you please, for one fucking minute, pull your head out of your ass and help me think of a way out of this?”

He was expecting some witty remark to follow, probably one about heads in certain places, but instead there was silence. He was beginning to think he hated the silence more, and when Jonny spoke in a small voice completely unlike him to say “The Toy Soldier” he knew he preferred anything to the silence. 

“Yes, what about it?” Tim asked. 

“If we can get it to find us we can make it kill Angus or whatever the fuck his name is”

“It’s a big ship Jonny. Not to mention that the Aurora doesn’t seem to be of much help to either of us right now” Tim said, looking around at the dead lights and controls. It would be on again soon, but the second that happened Angus would probably take control of it. Whether that would work was anyone’s guess, but it was pretty likely. Even sentience can only do so much. “Besides, he might’ve already found it before us”. 

“Well considering everyone else is planetside I think it might be our best shot”. 

Turns out Angus (aka the imposter who wanted to take the Aurora back to his home planet of wherever the fuck and disasamble it for money) had either not found the Toy Soldier, or found it the way everyone else had, which was “oh fuck this is here I’ll just hope it goes away”. It entered the room Tim and Jonny were in with a huge smile plastered onto its face. 

“What’s going on?” It asked, both smile and cheery tone of voice never faltering. 

“Turns out Angus is a total dick. Untie us so we can stop him before he takes the Aurora out of this system” Tim answered. There had been a brief moment of silence before he spoke where he waited for Jonny to fill in the details, as he normally liked to do. But Jonny was silent, which was odd. Tim probably would have noticed it a bit more if he wasn’t waiting for the Toy Soldier to untie him. 

“Alrighty then!” It said happily and got to work. Throughout the whole ordeal Jonny still didn’t speak, and Tim began to take notice then. Maybe he was just tired. After all, being tied up by an evil imposter dick could do that to you. 

Later that night, the rest of the crew was back on the Aurora. What was left of Angus had been disposed of in the engine room amongst the remains of Tim and Jonny’s last disputes (or fits of boredom). Tim explained the story, noting how dull it sounded when recounted by him. He wondered where Jonny was. After muttering something to Nastya he seemed to have scurried away somewhere. Tim wanted to find him, but he was probably tired and it was best to let him sleep for now, because lord knows Jonny did not sleep as much as he needed to, immortal or not. Still, he wanted Jonny there to recount it in his usual dramatic way that would probably involve some harmonica. But he got the point across well enough and soon they were on their way. 

A few hours later and most of the crew was sitting in one of the main living spaces. This was actually pretty uncommon, as most of them found means of occupation that didn’t involve the others. Jonny shuffled in quietly, a bundle of fabric in his arms. It looked like a jacket, and Tim thought he might’ve recalled Jonny wearing that jacket once or twice. He pressed it into Nastya’s arms, saying something about borrowing it and forgetting to return it before heading out again. Tim didn’t know anything about siblings or sibling dynamics (people had told him he and Bertie were like brothers, but he knew that wasn’t true. Or if it was it was just very incestous) but he assumed that was a formal apology and all was well between the two. And judging by Nastya’s smile as Jonny left, he knew he wasn’t far off in his guess. 

Tim wanted to follow Jonny, but then Ashes asked him something about one of his favorite pistols and he found himself distracted again, taking them down to the armory. 

When a few hours had passed again and Tim was still in the armory and the rest of the crew was asleep, he began to sense that something was seriously wrong. He hadn’t seen Jonny since he’d given the coat back to Nastya. That wasn’t entirely uncommon, the crew always tended to avoid each other whenever possible. It was best to avoid fights that way, what with being stuck together for eternity and all. Still, Jonny hadn’t come in once to try and distract Tim or to tell him some obscure story about New Texas. 

Tim put down the pistol he’d been cleaning and walked back to his room, which was empty. He and Jonny had been together for however many years now, but they still insisted upon separate rooms on principle. That principle being that Jonny described Tim’s room as looking like it belonged to a “divorced accountant” and Tim describing Jonny’s room as looking like it belonged to a “neurotic hoarder”. Still, most nights Jonny ended up sleeping in Tim’s room. Even before they got together he was always finding excuses to do so anyways. Tim, in typical oblivious fashion, assumed it was because Jonny’s room was so cluttered that it bothered him to sleep there. The most memorable incident of this was probably when Jonny had flopped down beside Tim on his bed and simply said “there’s rats in my room” and refused any further elaboration. Even now Tim wasn’t entirely sure if that one had been a lie or not. 

Opening the door to Jonny’s room Tim was immediately hit with a wall of smoke. Christ, he must’ve smoked an entire pack or something before Tim came in. Jonny was so going to get another lecture from Nastya on the ship's ventilation that he was probably also going to have to sit through for some reason. 

“Jonny?” he said, stepping into the room, making sure to watch his footing so he could step on the few clean spaces of floor available. 

The smoke cleared quickly, and revealed a mass of blankets atop the bed moving slowly. Tim shut the door behind him and sat on the edge of the bed. “Any particular reason you’re laying under all the blankets in a smoky room?” He asked, trying to keep his voice gentle and non accusatory. 

With a sigh, Jonny sat up and threw the blankets off himself. Tim thought, in the nicest way possible, that he looked like absolute shit. His hair was a disheveled mess, his eyes bloodshot and sunken in. 

“What’s wrong?” Tim asked, reaching a hand to smooth back Jonny’s hair which Jonny pushed away. 

“You were right,” he said, and his voice sounded hoarse and thin.

“About what?”

“What you said before. M’ always screwing shit up” 

“Jonny I-”

“Don’t apologize. You were right, after all. It’s true, I am always messing shit up”

“Jonny I didn’t mean that” Tim tried. 

“Yeah well it’s right anyways!” Jonny said harshly before burying himself back under the blankets. 

Now Tim knew he had fucked up. He also knew that there were at least fifteen other moments throughout the day where he should have realized this, but that was neither here nor there. That wasn’t what mattered now. He put his hand on top of the blankets, where Jonny’s back was, and rubbed it up and down soothingly. 

“No” he said gently, “I was angry and I didn’t mean any of that. You’re not stupid. You really think you’re the one who gets us into every situation? We all share like one collective brain cell, we get each other into shit and we get each other out of it, that’s just how it works. Besides, I think you’re really smart. You were the one who remembered the Toy Soldier was still on the ship, I probably wouldn’t have even thought to call for it”

Jonny sat up again, burrowing deep into Tim’s chest. Tim continued speaking softly as he ran his hands through Jonny’s hair, smoothing it back. 

“I’m so sorry for what I said. I should have told you I was upset, not sit in silence hoping it would go away on its own. Forgive me?” Tim said. 

Jonny pulled back, looking at Tim. He was silently crying, and Tim reached up to wipe a stray tear away with his thumb. 

“Course,” Jonny said quietly. He took another shaky breath before speaking again, “You know, the reason why I was so weird about Angus was because I was jealous"

At that Tim had to burst out laughing. Jonny glared and hit him in the side, but Tim didn’t care. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he said, “It’s just, you really thought I liked him more than you?”

“Yeah” Jonny said, crossing his arms and pouting, “a little bit”

Tim pulled Jonny back into his chest, “Christ no. He might’ve known a thing or two about guns but one he was ugly as shit and two he was really boring”

Jonny began to laugh a little bit too “Yeah, he really was”

They stayed like that for a little bit longer, before Tim suggested moving to his room so he could clean Jonny up, what with the dried tears and mucus beginning to crust around his eyes and nose. They snuck out into the hallway, and had just almost made it to Tim’s room before Nastya appeared seemingly out of nowhere. As she began to lecture on the ventilation of the Aurora, Tim smiled because he knew it didn’t really matter.

**Author's Note:**

> no clue if this makes any sense or not since I came up with the plot and just ran with it. I might make a second chapter explaining the backstory of how they got into this situation, but I'm also a huge procrastinator.


End file.
